While Brady may not have participated in New England’s first preseason game against the Redskins Thursday, he stated that he did not find out about whether or not he would play until coach Bill Belichick told him right before gametime.

“I think Coach does a great job of just making sure everyone’s prepared and ready to go,” Brady said. “The preparation leading up to the game is so important. You can always learn a lot from those experiences in practices. … He just said before the game that he thought that we got a lot of good work in and we weren’t going to play. I always love playing in those games, because to play real football where you’re getting hit and you’ve got a clock in your head to throw the ball and all those preparations are important for me, so hopefully I make up for lost time this week.”

One of the biggest takeaways from New England’s 23-6 loss to the Washington was the lackluster performance of quarterback Ryan Mallett. Starting for the first time in his professional career, Mallett was 5-of-12 for 55 yards on 18 snaps. Despite his poor showing, Mallett is still considered to be one of the more promising backup quarterbacks in the league – a notion that Brady agreed with.

“Ryan just needs an opportunity,” Brady said. “He hasn’t had a chance over the last few years to get in there and show what he can do. I’ve always loved working with Ryan and he’s got a great ability to be able to step in there and do the job and I think everybody’s got a lot of confidence that he can do it, he just hasn’t had the chance. You can’t judge anybody based on one half of the first preseason game. I think you have to look at the total body of work and that’s how coaches have always evaluated it.”

While the New England offense has been impressive during most of the team’s practices this preseason, Brady added that the Patriots still have a long way to go before their season opener Sept. 7 against the Dolphins.

“We have a lot of practices to go before we get to the opener, so I think all of it is in preparation for the opener,” Brady said. “I wouldn’t say we’re there yet. We’ve installed quite a few things, but there are a lot more things to install in order to be ready for a real NFL team with real NFL-caliber players at every position. Everyone has a lot of hope this year and everyone works hard over the offseason to try to improve their team, so we’ve tried to do that too, but you don’t know it until you get out there on the field and you try to do it under real competition. We’ve got quite a bit of time and we’re going to need it, because I wouldn’t say we’re starting with a really easy schedule.”

Even though he did not get any reps in New England’s first preseason action, Brady said that he is able to gain a good gauge on his skills from his performances during team practices.

“I think it all works,” Brady said. “You’re working towards the same thing, so the practices are extremely important, because it’s not like things are going to magically just come together in the game, you got to be able to do it in practice, and you got to do it on a consistent basis in order in order to gain confidence for what you do in the game, so those practice reps are really important and I’m trying to be the best I can be in those and I treat that very seriously. … When you go out there in the game, it should really be a reflection of what you’re doing in practice.”

Following are more highlights from the interview. For more Patriots, go to the team page at weei.com/patriots.

On Jimmy Garoppolo’s performance against the Redskins and comparisons between the Patriots quarterback and Doug Flutie: “I don’t think it’s really fair to make comparisons. They’re very different people and players. Doug did it for 20 years, so I think that’s pretty high expectations to put on someone who’s be in the NFL for about two weeks. Jimmy’s been great to be in the meeting room with and it’s been fun to play with him over the course of the offseason and the preseason. We’re all trying to get better and Jimmy’s a young quarterback. You make mistakes, you make good plays, you build on your confidence, you build on the good plays, and hopefully when you get your opportunity, you go out there and make the most of it.”

On his impression of Darrelle Revis so far this preseason: “It’s been so fun to go against him, because he challenges every throw, he challenges every play. He’s just so smart, so instinctive. I’ve played against Ed Reed a long time. … He played the deep middle of the field, but sometimes, he’d make tackles three yards from the line of scrimmage when his responsibility was 40 yards down the field and you’d say, ‘God, how did he know that the team was running shallow cross?’ He just knew. … That’s a lot how Revis [plays]. You don’t know what he sees or what he knows, but he always is in the right place.”